Verizon is responding to a lawsuit filed by major record labels over allegations of “egregious” piracy on its network, arguing that music companies can't pull the “same playbook” they used to win a billion-dollar judgment against another Internet service provider. .
The lawsuit, filed in July by Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment, alleges that Verizon “burned its head in the sand” in the face of repeated warnings about piracy on its network, effectively encouraging its users to share music illegally.
But in a motion to dismiss the case on Friday (Sept. 6), Verizon shot down the lawsuit's “legally flawed” premise: that the ISP itself can be held responsible for the sins of its users.
“When people do bad things online, their ISPs aren't usually to blame. This lawsuit alleges otherwise,” Verizon attorneys wrote. “The plaintiffs are huge record labels – together worth billions – who allege that some illegally shared their artists' songs over the Internet. However, they made a calculated choice not to sue these people.”
The new case is the latest in a long line of major lawsuits aimed at forcing Internet service providers to take more proactive measures to stamp out piracy on their networks. Large companies have filed similar cases against Charter, RCN and other ISPs in courts across the country, often winning huge judgments. In one case, the labels initially won a $1 billion verdict against Cox Communications.
But in a response Friday, Verizon said those “lucrative” cases had been wrongly decided by other federal courts and should be thrown out in the current battle, which is taking place in the influential federal district of Manhattan.
“The Labels filed this lawsuit because the same playbook has worked against others,” Verizon's lawyers wrote. “But the rulings that blessed these lawsuits were wrong then and are even less persuasive now.”
Proving that an ISP is liable for secondary copyright infringement requires evidence of “culpable action, not passive inaction,” Verizon wrote. Other federal judges may have been persuaded that failure to interrupt Internet service qualifies as such “active” conduct, Verizon says, but this one does not.
“The Labels do not allege that Verizon encouraged or intended music piracy to occur,” the company's lawyers wrote. “All Verizon did was sell public Internet access, which some people abused to share copyrighted music with others.”
Specifically, the telecommunications giant pointed to a 2023 decision by the US Supreme Court in which justices ruled that Facebook, Twitter and Google could not be sued for aiding and abetting ISIS simply because the terrorist group had published content on social media. Verizon argued that the legal argument in the copyright cases against the ISPs is in direct conflict with the recent high court decision.
“As the first district court to consider the matter after [the Supreme Court’s decision]this court now has the opportunity to dismiss the case,” Verizon attorneys added. “He had to do it. The complaint must be dismissed.”
